An official ceremony was held in Tampa, Florida, on October 7, 2023, to induct the DDG 125 Jack H. Lucas into the United States Navy. This destroyer is the first ship in the Flight III series of Arleigh Burke-class vessels, and it is the 75th ship of the Arleigh Burke-class to be added to the fleet of the US Navy.
Pascagoula, Mississippi, served as the host location for the Ingalls Shipbuilding division of Huntington Ingalls Industries during the construction of the DDG 125 Jack H. Lucas destroyer. The US Navy awarded contracts for the first six Arleigh Burke-class destroyers of the new Flight III series in June 2013. The shipyards leading the construction of these ships are Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula (a contract for three ships totalling $3.331 billion) and Bath Iron Works (a subsidiary of General Dynamics) in Bath, Maine (a contract for one Flight IIA ship and three Flight III ships totalling $3.56 billion). However, the actuarial value of these contracts increased later. At Ingalls Shipbuilding, the keel for the lead ship, which was going to be named Jack H. Lucas, was set down on November 8, 2019, and launched on June 4, 2021. On December 12, 2022, the ship was put through its first round of sea trials, and on June 27, 2023, it was officially turned over to the US Navy. The ship will conduct its missions in the Pacific Ocean from its home port of San Diego, California. The lead destroyer’s initial operational capability (IOC) is not expected to be reached until 2024.
The destroyer is named after Jacqueline Harold “Jack” Lucas (1928-2008), an American Marine presented with the Medal of Honour in 1945 for his bravery in combat on Iwo Jima. The Medal of Honour is the highest military honour that can be bestowed upon a US service member. Lucas was only 17 years old when he received the Medal of Honour; to this day, he holds the record as the youngest Marine and the youngest American service member to be awarded the Medal of Honour for service during World War II.
As a successor to the aborted CG (X) cruiser programme, the Flight III programme to develop a modified version of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer was underway in 2010. The Flight III modification is based on the installation of a new version of the AEGIS Baseline 10 integrated weapons system with a new Raytheon AN/SPY-6(v)1 AMDR (Air and Missile Defence Radar) radar system with better anti-missile capabilities, which is replacing the old AN/SPY-1 radar. This new radar system is part of the Air and Missile Defence Radar (AMDR) family. It was originally planned for the AMDR radar system to be put aboard the CG (X) cruiser; instead, on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers of the Flight III series, it is fitted in a scaled-down version (4.3 m diameter as opposed to the cruiser’s 6.7 m diameter). In addition, the hulls of the Flight III ships have been strengthened, the architecture of the superstructures has been largely altered, the power output of the generators has been enhanced, and the ships’ air conditioning systems have been upgraded. The Flight III destroyer has a total displacement of 9,676 tonnes, measured in metric.
The US Navy has ordered 14 Flight III destroyers, designated DDG 125, DDG 126, and DDG 128 through DDG 139. Eight destroyers will be built at Ingalls Shipbuilding, and the remaining six will be built at Bath Iron Works. On August 15, 2023, Ingalls Shipbuilding began constructing the second Flight III destroyer, DDG 128 Ted Stevens. On May 16, 2023, the keel for the first Flight III destroyer to be built at Bath Iron Works, the DDG 126 Louis H. Wilson Jr., was set down. The US Navy intends to commission 42 destroyers of the Arleigh Burke-class of the Flight III series.
